Waste of Electrical Equipment

I have a 65 inch Samsung 3D tv which cost over $6000 in 2014. The one connect box has malfunctioned and having paid a technician for a home visit I am advised that there are no parts available. The TV works fine, however, it needs the one connect box to function correctly. Having searched for over 2 weeks to find a similar one connect box I am out of luck. So it is off to the recyclers with the TV, leads, 4 pairs of 3D glasses and the one connect box. What a terrible waste.

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Bummer. As a try before junking your TV, have you had a look on ebay for a seller with the supplies of one connect devices suitable for your model TV?

I have had good luck in the past getting brand new TV accessories like remotes on ebay after the manufacturer no longer supplied them.

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Also check whether the One Connect Boxes for other models, newer models are compatible with your TV. Some manufacturers produce standard components across multiple models for year of manufacture and other years of manufacture. If this is the case, it might provide options for you.

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I have tried to talk sense with Samsung Technical help. They were of not help at all. I have asked on at least 10 times if what you say is possible. All I get is that only my box is suitable for that TV. I have tried all over to get the same box but there are none available even second hand. I paid a Samsung technician to visit and he took the whole deal away but they could not get parts.

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A general observation is that TVs and many other products are no longer serviced by parts. Manufacturers either replace failed units or keep a statistically informed parts store to carry through their warranty period, and after that the consumer is on their own. How rights under the ACL go becomes a case by case experience but sometimes it comes down to them offering discount on a replacement if the ACL applies and there are no parts and a refund is impossible to obtain, but the discount may have restrictions that makes it unpalatable and cutting loses can be the easiest and best way forward.

Now, that being written your high end TV is 8 years old and conventional expectation is a TV should last about that long if not longer. You might research your TV and the One Box and have a go at getting compensation through your rights under the Australian Consumer Law, although it may be a long shot at 8 years.

Read about your rights and be aware a reasonable longevity is a very fuzzy concept. There is lots of advice as well as links about and to the ACL on the Community if you want to consider a claim. Considering Samsung response to date as well as other reports of their ‘support’ they are what they are, so be realistic with prospects but nothing ventured


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Absolutely agree, but there is a relationship between price and expectation of reasonable life. A $6,000 TV should be reparable after eight years, or the manufacturer should give you a significant discount on a new model.

What is really annoying in this instance is that the failed component appears to be a ‘nice to have’ cable management tool - not an integral part of the television. One would have hoped that Samsung could design it as a stand-alone - but apparently it bumps TV prices up quite considerably and a company would not want to know how much it actually costs.

There are some listed on Ebay, but you will obviously need to look for the box that suits your TV.

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I’m a little confused by this sentence. What exactly works fine (and how would you even know that it is working fine)?

Either way though, it would be highly disappointing to pay $6000 for a TV and only get 8 years. It is a sad indictment on how design evolves for the benefit of the manufacturer, not the customer. If ever this was an argument for right-to-repair 


You would think that Choice would be interested in this case.

Other countries are more advanced in starting the conversation about clamping down on this sort of rubbish.

I wouldn’t be throwing it all away just yet. While there may not be anything on the second-hand market at this exact moment in time, perhaps something will come up. Perhaps someone else has a failed panel but a working One Connect box (but it would likely have to be from the same era).

If you do decide to throw it away then you know what brand you won’t be buying.

Looks like Samsung has gone through many iterations of the One Connect box in quick succession (but 2014 would be the very first generation). I couldn’t find much information about the interface, so it is impossible to know whether compatibility is a non-starter. The connectors don’t look identical.

The cable appears to be a combination of copper (perhaps only for power) and fibre (perhaps just one audio/video signal??) but even then there are a range of fibre standards (or Samsung might not even be using a standard) and even if the fibre lower level protocols are compatible, it doesn’t mean that the higher level protocols are compatible.

On the power side, of course you may not have any information about voltage and maximum current.

Given the amount of the functionality of the TV that has been extracted into the One Connect box, it seems as if the TV itself is just a display panel - and the One Connect box should not be regarded as in any way separate from the TV i.e. the One Connect box is just the guts of a conventional TV ripped out and put into a separate box (maybe simplifying it).

The main goal of the One Connect box appears to be to enable wall mount.

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I know that the TV panel works fine because the technician advised me and the tv shows an animation showing when the one connect box is disconnected. Also when they returned the tv etc initially I was able to get channel 7 for a short time. There appears to be an intermittent fault with the one connect box.

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What about the HDMI inputs? Do they work?

I think the whole point of the One Connect Box is that it has a proprietary connection to the display and then provides all of the outward-facing connections such as HDMI, power, audio, data etc. This means that you cannot simply plug in some set top box, as it would have to go through the ports on the malfunctioning One Connect Box.

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Right. I meant: What about the HDMI inputs on the One Connect box? Do they work?

I think the OP has not clarified the extent to which the One Connect box is malfunctioning. As you say and as my question was implying, if an HDMI port works then there would be ways of salvaging something of the $6000 TV.

It could be that it is only something in the tuner that is malfunctioning.

But, yes, let’s say that the fibre optic transmitter on the output side of the One Connect box, going to the TV, is malfunctioning then the OP may be SOL.

I guess failure in the One Connect cable has been eliminated as the cause.

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There is only one connection on the tv and that comes from the one connect box.

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I think what @person is asking is do the HDMI ports/inputs on the one connect box work, namely can you see and hear a DVD player (or other device) plugged into a HDMI port into the one box, on the TV? If the HDMI input through the one connect box still works, then there may be the option to connect a PVR, set top box or media player to the one connect box HDMI ports and use these as a work around.

If you see image but no sound, a sound system can be used by plugging audio outputs on a plugged in device directly to the sound system. If no image, try each HDMI port on the one box to see if any work. If none work, then this work around isn’t possible.

These are the (4) HDMI ports in question


The one connect port on the far right looks like a proprietary port possibly developed by Samsung for its own TVs.

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I’m curious and appalled. The Samsung design delivers a dumb flat screen (aka led monitor) and pairs it with a well connected tuner-set top box. The box is everything.

Samsung has obviously shot itself in the foot big time if the interface (cable/plug) between the expensive large screen TV quality monitor and “One Connect Box” is not universal or common across all of the models it has produced.

Worthy of a Choice shonky nomination?

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Thank you for your help. I am away but will try when I get back.

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It appears that some USA suppliers have the internal PCB for the one connect box for that particular model. Price is not cheap and there could be some time between an order and receipt of the part and there is no way to really check the bona fides of the sellers.

Samsung BN94-07755F PC Board-Jackpack, Uh9V | TVserviceParts.com

Install of the PCB could be done by an electronics repair business, that would likely add some cost as well. With the price of new TVs much cheaper and having newer app support is it worth repairing the old. 8 years while not the best time wise for your TV doesn’t mean that a partial refund couldn’t be requested from Samsung and put towards a new TV? Nothing ventured nothing gained??

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Thank you. I am very grateful for all of the suggestions.

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Yes, that’s correct. Thanks for translating my post. :wink:

That is my belief but it is difficult to find any info on the internet about that port. Maybe if you are a TV repair tech for Samsung TVs, there are manuals available under NDA that would explain in more detail. Otherwise see my comments above.

I wouldn’t go that far but $6000 for 8 years of use is definitely disappointing.

That’s a difficult consideration though. With the rate at which technology changes, compatibility (in either direction) can only go so far - and I think one problem here is that this particular TV is “first generation” of the One Connect box (you know, like a V1.0 and really it’s only a subsequent version that works properly and the way it should work because V1.0 had to get out the door in accordance with management’s timeframe :slightly_smiling_face:).

One way that compatibility can work is that the protocol starts at the lowest common denominator and the box and the TV then negotiate their highest common protocol version - and then upgrade the protocol if possible. Examples in generic contexts: ethernet using an RJ45 connector, USB.

That would allow complete mix-and-match between box and TV, albeit with degraded functionality when the two ends are not at the same protocol version.

That doesn’t last forever though.

USB has changed over to USB-C connectors which obviously can’t be connected to USB-A (without an adapter). The enticement is that USB-C provides so much more but 


There are any number of older ethernet styles (i.e. before 10base-T) which you basically can’t buy anything for or connect.

Some TVs and other AV devices are dropping support for the various analog video input sources.

People complain about their analog TVs being obsoleted (particularly when the digital TV signal is poorer than the analog ever was :rofl:).

And my favourite gripe: recent iPhone models that have no 3.5mm analog audio output / input - forcing you to buy Bluetooth headphones / headset that are constantly going flat and are inherently less reliable and more complex to use. :wink:

You can’t stop progress. :slight_smile:

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I know what you mean!

But is all progress good progress?

For technology and Samsung in this instance it would have only been obvious to some there were risks in adopting a proprietary solution. For the average consumer did the retail sales team and Samsung reliably inform the purchaser of the risks before parting with $6k?

Curiosity JB HiFi and others have current Samsung ‘Frame’ TV’s available in a variety of screen sizes in QHD. The 2021 65” model was listed at $1495 assuming you can find one. The 2022 model is a tad pricier at $2395 discounted. What a difference a single digit makes. :roll_eyes:

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In this case, I think the OP should consider “once bitten, twice shy” and avoid Samsung if it turns out that the current TV has to be e-wasted.

As I implied, a difficult question. In the examples I gave, you should detect at least a little scepticism. :wink:

How do you measure “good”? Whom is it good for? (It may be much better for a first time buyer, as compared with a buyer who already has a significant investment in an older technology.)

Would I want to go back to the ethernet days of yellow peril and vampire taps? Most definitely not!

I doubt that the sales team would be required to disclose that, particularly since so much technology is proprietary.

Sometimes proprietary technology is subsequently opened, or achieves such widespread use and implementation that it is de facto open e.g. ethernet.

Sometimes it is open but licensed in a way that makes it only really semi-open e.g. HDMI.

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